Protesting climate change on Tauranga streets

The aim of the action is to get “leaders to wake up to the crisis of climate change and take immediate action”.

Climate change is such a part of modern vocabulary that the words now fail to invoke any response, says the organisation in a statement released today.

“Our Prime Minister declared that climate change is this generation’s nuclear moment and yet on every stage, national and local government, business and community, we as a people continue to fail.

“We are facing the sixth global extinction, not only our way of life but our very lives and those of future generations are at risk.”

Extinction Rebellion is a movement born out of London to demand immediate response; the first action saw the Mayor of London declare a climate emergency in response.

“This action is not a gesture but an action which casts the declining state of our environment to the forefront of conversation at every board table, meeting and water cooler.

“This movement has spread around the world since October 2018 and today the people of Tauranga use their voice to demand that our council recognise and act in response to this emergency.

“The disruption caused today is to highlight that we need to change, that we will not sit idly by as lives, of people today and tomorrow, are destroyed by inaction and apathy.

“XR Tauranga is demanding that our council declare a climate emergency in line with other councils. This declaration will place the climate as a council priority and they must commit to engaging with Project Drawdown.

“We demand that a strategy is put in place to ensure that Tauranga is carbon neutral by 2025. We demand that citizen’s assemblies are implemented in Tauranga to consult and reach agreement on actions from the community, not just the board room.

“Today, we create disruption to your lives not for the sake of disruption but to ensure that there is a tomorrow.”

5 Comments

To be borne in mind...

Posted on 24-02-2019 10:56 | By Bay Citizen

Whatever your views on man-made climate change, it ought to be borne in mind that: i) the climate is always changing and always will do, regardless of what man does ii) man is an adaptable species capable of living from the frigid Arctic to the searing Sahara, and iii) apocalyptic predictions of mass extinctions (due to climate change rather than general habitat loss), tipping points, hockey stick graphs and the like do a huge disservice if you are trying to persuade people, because in the real world, such claims are a cliche of naive and always-wrong predictions of the future.

Protestors or Rent A Crowd

Posted on 18-02-2019 22:24 | By Mal C

Once again we are going back into disruption and disorder in the name of some cause that a minority believe gives then the right to override the rights of honest citizens in the course of their daily lives. How does this change the issue they are so called bringing to our attention? Surely the law should be enforced so we are protected from these idealists breaking the law, as opposed to a protest where we all can go about our business. Bring back the red squad!

Dream on little kiddies

Posted on 18-02-2019 16:48 | By dave4u

Weather same as it always was and will be the same again in another 100 years The small change comes from the earth being knocked off its axis by all the wars and bombs

Phhtt..

Posted on 18-02-2019 16:00 | By Slim Shady

So the climate is changing, which it has before, several times, and will do again, several times. The sun will also expire one day but it’s ok because before that happens we will have run out of water. And when that happens we will run out of food sources. All of which is unlikely to be a massive problem because there will be very few remaining after the inevitable nuclear holocaust. And if that doesn’t happen it will be because we are existing on another planet many galaxies away, rich in resources. Which we can start to plunder. Do these silly people not realise that Earth has an expiry date?

Your demands!

Posted on 18-02-2019 14:32 | By Kancho

Demands well here is some of mine. Stop creating inconvenience and cost by the grandstanding your agenda and simplistic rhetoric.
Write letters to The Donald who is bringing back coal mines. Lobby China who has built one hundred coal fired power plants in a year. Do you think everyones consumption and the population explosion of new consumers will stop China or anyone else from meeting those needs. Our levels of pollution for a year are surpassed in a day in China alone. Then add all the other countries in Asia, africa and America. Most of the ever increasing population of the world have absolutely no choice nor live in a liberal place. So demand away but stop buying things? stop having children? No I think not. Frustrating people trying to get through another work day, seems you don’t have to worry